ARCHANA SURANA, REPRESENTS INDIA AT 25TH ENCATC, THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL NETWORKING CONGRESS

Ms Archna Surana , founder and Director, Arch Academy of Design (AAD) having fashion and design institutes in Jaipur and Gurugram (Gurgaon) was the only Indian to be invited at the just concluded Four day 25th ENCATC congress on Cultural Management and policy held in Brussels, Europe.

The 25th ENCATC Congress with the theme ‘Click, Connect and Collaborate! New directions in sustaining cultural networks’. held at Brussels (September 27-30, 2017) was attended by academics, researchers, professionals and representatives from various EU institutions, governments and European and international networks to discuss the key role of networks and develop ideas and proposals to guarantee their sustainability in a challenging environment.

About 260 Cultural leaders and players from 40 countries were invited to this international Congress by ENCATC to re-think networking in a changing society. The gathering was designed for about academics, researchers, trainers and educators, cultural managers, policy makers, artists and students as well as the wider public across the globe.

Ms Archna Surana was on the panel of two of the three discussions on Cultural Management with senior representatives from Universities, Cultural Divisions, Academies of Art & Education & the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels & the UNCTAD Palais des Nations.The important discussions centred around the current role & practice & the future of cultural management pedagogy in various regions & how much cultural management education is valued by students, institutions & universities, & by locality, government, & practitioners.

“The main focus of the conference was on creation of sustainable cultural network and strengthening the European Identity through culture . With deep penetration of digitalisation the role of cultural networks has multiplied further to bring people together. Exchange, mobility of artists, learning from cultural exchange with help of digitalisation can help sustain culture in Europe and rest of the world” said MSs Archna Surana, Founder and Director, Arch Academy of Design.

It provided participants with a space to share knowledge, ideas and best practice and it was a privileged occasion for participants to enlarge their personal and professional contacts with new entries from in and outside Europe.

ENCATC was established in 1992 as an NGO & works in partnership with the European Union & UNESCO. It is an observer to the Council of Europe. It advocates, and promotes cultural management and cultural policy education, professionalizes the cultural sector to make it sustainable, and creates a platform for discussion and exchange at European and international level.